Clothes: What was once the bane of my childish existence was a boon this year. I have become one of those guys who wears whatever he has until it is falling apart, and the end result is a rather shabby-looking fellow staring back in the mirror. My wife, fresh from having pieces of herself removed during surgery last week, decided that it was time to freshen up my look somewhat. A new hoodie, t-shirts, a polo, and a new oxford were welcome sights, as was the gift card she gave me to go pick out more. With luck, I’ll stop looking like a refugee from 2001 this year.

Popcorn: My kids visited my favorite chocolate shop (The Chocolate Emporium) and bought me a bag of their chocolate-covered popcorn. While it’s a small setback for my diet, it is a welcome addition to my lunch this week.

Legos: My four year-old son gave me three small boxes with his Legos in them, saying that he wanted to give me his favorite toys. He also said that he hoped I’d share with him. Which, of course, I shall.

The B-Spot: My in-laws gave me a give card to Michael Symon’s B-Spot restaurant, which is my current favorite place to grab a burger and beer. Highly recommended. I’m saving it for a place to take my wife after she;s fully recovered.

I also received some birthday cash, and with that, I treated myself to some fiction I’ve been waiting to pick up:

- Transmetropolitan, Vol. 2: Lust for Life by Warren Ellis
- The Hidden Family by Charles Stross (Book 2 of The Merchant Princes)
- The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross (Book 3 of The Merchant Princes)

For myself, I picked up the latest MacHeist bundle. I’m using MacJournal from that bundle to write this post, and while I’m not sure that I love it, is does have some good points. I think I like vim better.

Finally, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and bought a monthly subscription to Thomas Gideon’s Commandline Podcast. The man is my tech news aggregator, after all. It’s important to support content creators, and Thomas is one of the best.

• My apologies for missing my TRICKSTERS update for the last two weeks. Between a big event last Thursday and my wife’s operation this week, I’ve just not had the energy to put out a good episode. I’ve written three lousy episodes, but as they are sub-par, I’m going to hold on to them and try to magically turn them into something decent for next week.
• My wife (Cathy) is recovering from he gall bladder surgery nicely…each day is a little better than the last. Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers, luck, and good wishes. She really does appreciate it, as do I.
• Thanks to everyone who is wishing me a happy birthday today.   In case I do not get to thank you personally, know that it is greatly appreciated.
• Want to know what I was up to in Atlanta? My interview about PyCon is now available at The Command Line podcast. 
• My review of Charles Stross’s Halting State is up on The Secret Lair.
• We’ve announced the winner of the Name Overlord Johnson’s Laptop contest.
• I am once again dabbling in Second Life. You can blame Sam Chupp for this.  I am known there as Brand MacIntyre…feel look me up. I am a lonely soul there, knowing no one.

The suggestion?  Thumbtacks.

I’ll be at:

• PyCon: Feb 17-21 in Atlanta, GA
• Balticon 44: May 28-30 in Balimore, MD
• GenCon: Aug 6-8 in Indianapolis, IN
• Con on the Cob: Oct 14-17 in Hudson, OH. This one will be something special…Kris and I have a Clever Plan we’ll talk about in coming months.

If you’re going to be at any of these, drop me a line and let’s find some time to meet up.

Also, the latest episode of TRICKSTERS has been posted on The Secret Lair. Remember the girl on the doorstep from last week? Yeah. There’s more to her than meets the eye.

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for “oral sex”.

Merriam Webster’s 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the “sexually graphic” entry is “just not age appropriate”, according to the area’s local paper.

The dictionary’s online definition of the term is “oral stimulation of the genitals”. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.

A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change – doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Kirkpatrick’s response is spot on:

This is a radical change from the way that Zuckerberg pounded on the importance of user privacy for years. That your information would only be visible to the people you accept as friends was fundamental to the DNA of the social network that hundreds of millions of people have joined over these past few years. Privacy control, he told me less than 2 years ago, is “the vector around which Facebook operates.”

I don’t buy Zuckerberg’s argument that Facebook is now only reflecting the changes that society is undergoing. I think Facebook itself is a major agent of social change and by acting otherwise Zuckerberg is being arrogant and condescending.

Why is Facebook changing their tune?  Money, baby. Money. At first, it might have been helping people stay in contact. Now, however, with 350 million people giving their personal information to the system, Facebook stands to gain…if they can convince everyone who uses their service that they do not need privacy anymore. Kirkpatrick continues:

First the company kept user data siloed inside its site alone, saying that a high degree of user privacy would make users comfortable enough to share more information with a smaller number of trusted people.

Now that it has 350 million people signed up and connected to their friends and family in a way they never have been before – now Facebook decides that the initial, privacy-centric, contract with users is out of date. That users actually want to share openly, with the world at large, and incidentally (as Facebook’s Director of Public Policy Barry Schnitt told us in December) that it’s time for increased pageviews and advertising revenue, too….

…Facebook allows everyday people to share the minutia of their daily lives with trusted friends and family, to easily distribute photos and videos – if you use it regularly you know how it has made a very real impact on families and social groups that used to communicate very infrequently. Accessible social networking technology changes communication between people in a way similar to if not as intensely as the introduction of the telephone and the printing press. It changes the fabric of peoples’ lives together. 350 million people signed up for Facebook under the belief their information could be shared just between trusted friends. Now the company says that’s old news, that people are changing. I don’t believe it.

I think Facebook is just saying that because that’s what it wants to be true.

Just because a service is free to you does not mean you have to give it everything you are. They are trying to make millions off of your personal information. Better, they didn’t have to pay you one red cent for it.

Is that right? Is that fair and honest? Is that in your best interest?

In order to help Tee and his daughter through this diffcult period, Pip Ballantine has set up a fund where anyone who wishes to can chip in. Please consider doing so, if you have the means.

To Tee: We’re here for you, pal. You need anything at all, you let us know.

1. In the words of Evo Terra: “Tee was the first author to make his book into a serialized audiobook delivered by a podcast. And though others soon followed independent of Tee’s actions, his ‘Hey Evo, I have an idea…’ phone call in late 2004 was the genesis of what would become Podiobooks.com.”

Dianne Lynch wanted to give the students of Stephens College a break from the constant digital communication that pervades their generation. So she asked them to put their phones and computers away and revive the 176-year-old school’s dormant tradition of vespers services.

On a bitterly cold December night, with the start of final exams just hours away, about 75 of Stephens’ 766 undergraduates grudgingly piled their cell phones into collection baskets and filed into the school’s candlelit chapel, where they did little but sit, silently. For an hour, not an iPod ear bud could be seen. There were no fingers flying on tiny computer keyboards, no chats with unseen intimates.

Alexis Dornseif, a senior from suburban St. Louis majoring in fashion marketing and management, said she needed time away from her busy life.

“Sometimes it’s really overwhelming,” she said. “It’s good to have time to think, to not worry about what’s going on tomorrow.”

I heartily approve this message. Take some time off. Turn off your phones. Stop tweeting for a while. Relax. Pause and Consider. Be.

WInter in Ohio, 2009

Originally uploaded by Codeshaman

A little something that reminds me of how beautiful winter can be in Ohio. Taken at Chagrin Falls after the first real snow of 2009.